Getting Tired...
...of the anti-Obama liberal freak-out faction that now seems to revel in drawing every worst-possible-conclusion to his every move. When Bill Clinton did stuff like this - except for welfare reform where he got nailed as well - we praised him as a masterful politician. He would have been hailed a genius for boxing the Republicans in with a word like "freeze" after he'd already raised spending considerably his first year, left room for health reform, a second stimulus, a jobs bill, and all the spending conservatives love (military, intelligence, homeland security). Now that Obama does it, not only does he not get the benefit of the doubt, the freak-out faction is acting like he cut school lunch programs or something.

Here's the truth: what's actually "frozen" in Obama's proposal is relatively very small, and leaves room for flexible increases and decreases for individual programs within the larger umbrella. It's also essentially what he's been saying all along he would send Congress: a massive spending increase in year one to right the ship after Bush decimated domestic programs, and then a significant slowdown in spending so the deficit doesn't go nuts for the following three years. This "freeze" will cut last year's budget spending projections by a miniscule 250 billion over 10 years.

Memo to freak-out faction: Calling it a "freeze" is the White House's political calculation designed to neutralize idiot Republicans/Independents. It's smart politics at a time we could use some. Job bill, second stimulus, health reform, not affected. Education budget will still increase under his proposal, some other peripheral programs will get cut to make room. Chill.